Men's Race: Will Norris Storms Home to Claim Twin Cities

• Norris wins in 2:15:39 (5:10/mi), erasing a 4th-place deficit at the halfway mark with the fastest men's split from 15K to 20K — a decisive surge that turned a chase into a title.
• Tesfu Tewelde led for much of the first half, posting the fastest men's split on the opening 5K→10K leg, but finished 25 seconds back in 2nd (2:16:04); Benard Kipkemoi Rotich held 3rd in 2:17:35.
• Asefa Bekele was the most aggressive mover in the early middle miles — rising from 4th to 2nd with the fastest men's split on 10K→15K — before fading to 5th (2:20:23) by the finish.
• Bradley Makuvire ran the most consistent race outside the top three, posting the fastest men's split on the first half and holding 4th all the way home in 2:20:13.

The 2025 men's race on the point-to-point course from Minneapolis to Saint Paul was a tactical chess match that didn't resolve until well past the halfway mark. Tesfu Tewelde (Flagstaff, AZ) grabbed the early initiative, running the fastest men's 5K→10K split and sitting at the front of the men's field through the first half. Will Norris, meanwhile, had drifted as far back as 4th place by the midpoint — a position that, given his eventual margin of victory, makes what followed all the more impressive.

Norris's 15K–20K split was the fastest among all men on that segment, and it was the race's turning point. He moved from 4th to the lead and never surrendered it, crossing in 2:15:39 at 5:10/mi. It's a performance that stands in interesting contrast to his 2024 appearance here — he finished 6th that year in 2:12:33, a faster clock but a lower podium. The 2025 conditions — 69°F, 17 mph winds, and 65% humidity — were notably tougher, making the result all the more meaningful.

Tewelde's 2:16:04 earned him a well-deserved 2nd, and Rotich's 2:17:35 locked up 3rd. The Bekele subplot was the race's sharpest rise-and-fall: he climbed to 2nd on the strength of the fastest 10K→15K split among the men, only to slip back to 5th as Norris and Tewelde found another gear. Bradley Makuvire (2:20:13, 4th) and Blake Buysse (2:21:35, 6th) rounded out the front pack. In a men's field of 4,157 across one of America's great urban marathon courses, Norris's charge through the back half was the defining story of the day.